The Moz Blog

Punctured Tires and Lessons Learned About Paid Links

The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

My first triathlon was this past Saturday (it was a sprint), and it didn't go so well. I figured there would be some way to use the experience as a lesson learned about SEO, so I thought about it for a bit and concluded that there is a lesson indeed, and it is about paid links. Obviously, it's a loose tie-in, but whatever, I'm good at stretching analogies. Anyway, if you're willing to humor me and my semi-topical post, read on. If not, brainstorm some questions to ask Rand. :)

Saturday morning I woke up at 4:15 am (aka "the butt crack of dawn") to get prepared for my first triathlon. I have been training for a half Ironman, but my trainer wanted me to familiarize myself with the craziness of a triathlon so I signed up for a sprint. A sprint is a 400 meter swim, a 15 mile bike, and a 5k run (3.1 miles). I was a bit nervous, especially about the open water swim, but I had done some lake swims and it was a short distance so I figured I'd do fine.

The race started and I did the swim portion. I had to catch my breath and collect myself halfway though the swim because there were quite a few people around me and I didn't want to freak out, but I did all right (I could have shaved at least a minute off my swim time, but overall it wasn't too horrible). I ran out of the water, yanked off my swim cap, goggles (and yes, I initially typed "googles"), and wet suit, threw on my helmet, sunglasses, and bike shoes, grabbed my bike, and took off.

The bike was a leisurely 15 miles with one small hill climb. I say "leisurely" because a couple weeks ago I did a 52 mile bike ride, so compared to that 15 miles felt like a breeze. I biked out to the turnaround point and headed back. I looked at my watch and saw, to my excitement, that I was making decent time for my first ever race. Only 3 miles to go, then a short 3 mile run and I'd be done. Huzzzah!

My internal celebration was immediately sidelined when I heard a small but audible "pop!" I didn't think much of it--I figured I ran over something and made a crunching noise. No big deal. However, shortly after the mystery noise something didn't feel right. My bike sounded loud. Really loud. The ride was no longer smooth--it felt like I was riding on a jack hammer. I rode for a bit longer before deciding to stop. I clicked out of my pedals, turned around, and pushed down on the back tire. It squished under the pressing weight of my finger. I had a flat.

"No big deal," you're probably thinking, "just change it right quick and be on your way!" Uhhhhh, yeah, that would have been the most feasible solution...except for I didn't have a spare tube with me, nor did I have a bike changing kit, nor do I even know how to change a tire. I had been meaning to attend a bike clinic and learn how to do it, but I just never got around to it, plus I told myself, "What are the chances, right?" Well, just my luck--I ride for 3 1/2 hours with no problem two weeks ago, but the day where I'm participating in a timed event and going a whopping 15 miles, I get a flat with 3 miles to go. Son of a bitch.

I walked with my bike for several minutes before a friend of mine saw me and stopped. She had a spare tube and a bike kit...but she'd never really changed a tube, either. We fumbled with the back tire for about 20 minutes. My boyfriend rode up, stared at us awkwardly (no, he doesn't know anything about bikes, either), gave us his extra tube as a backup, and rode off. The entire time I kept glancing at my watch, thinking, "I should be done with the race by now," and getting more irritated and frantic.

Thankfully, a spunky little woman ran across the street wielding a bike pump. She lived nearby and saw two inept racers fumbling with a bike, so she decided to help out (and by "help out," I mean she totally pulled a Nick Burns, the Company Computer Guy on me and said "Mooove!" so she could work her magic). Christy (aka the hero of the day) had done many triathlons and knew a thing or two about bike maintenance, so she swiftly took over and expertly changed the flat out for the spare tube...only to discover that the air valve on the tube was bent, so she had to change that one (good thing we had a backup tube for the backup tube). After a 30 to 40 minute delay, I was finally able to climb back on my bike and finish the final 3 miles. I transitioned as quickly as I could and hauled ass for 3.1 miles, fueled by rage and exasperation. I crossed the finish line in a measly 2:05. With the delay, it took me an hour and 26 minutes to ride 15 miles. If I hadn't gotten the flat, I would have finished in around 1:35 or better. For someone as stubborn as me, that's a hard fact to swallow.

"Yeah, great," you're thinking, "You didn't know how to fix a flat so you screwed yourself over and finished with a crappy time. What does this have to do with SEO?" Well, I thought about how I had been doing so much training and figured the sprint would be a piece of cake. Sure, I didn't know how to change a flat, but I had done a long-ass ride recently and had no problems whatsoever, so what's another 15 miles?

Well, I thought about my situation from a paid links perspective. Maybe you think you know a thing or two about SEO--you have a website and you've read an SEO blog here and there. You understand that you need links to your site, and you've heard that you can simply shell out some cash and receive a large amount of links quickly and easily. "Pretty sweet deal," you think to yourself, so you snatch up some links. They go under the radar of the scrutinizing search engines. You amass thousands of links, hundreds of which are via paid means, and you've never been caught. This is your 52 mile bike ride. Why should you worry about your website getting a flat tire (a flat tire in this instance being getting busted by search engines)? You haven't had any problems so far, and you think you know what you're doing, right?

One day, however, you're stunned to find that the latest small batch of paid links you've purchased got you thrown in the slammer. Somehow these links didn't escape from the search engines' steely gaze like the other ones have. Your site's been penalized. Your rankings took a nosedive. Your business suffers. You, my friend, got a flat tire, and now you're left standing by the side of the road looking like an idiot and not knowing what to do. Guess you didn't know as much as you thought...

That's what happened to me, and I've seen the same thing happen to marketers. I got cocky. I mean, I know I'm no triathlon expert or anything, but the amount of knowledge and training I've built up over the past four months combined with the previously successful long rides I'd done made me think that the chances of some sort of mechanical hiccup happening to me would be low. Similarly, a lot of marketers think, "Hey, I already have a ton of paid links and the search engines haven't detected them, so what's a few more? What are the chances I'll get busted for this new batch?"

Well, maybe you will and maybe you won't, but are you willing to take that risk? Maybe I will get a flat and maybe my ride will be fine, but I've now learned that that's a risk I don't want to take. I also learned that I don't know as much as I think, which is why I'm attending a bike maintenance class this week. The same goes for marketers--when you're stranded by the side of the road with a neutered site and useless links because the search engines lay the smack down on you, do you know what your next course of action is, or are you going to stand there awkwardly, not knowing what to do as your site loses conversions and business every day it's taking a rankings hit?

Now, I'm not saying that all paid links are bad, contrary to what Google may insist. I just caution that if you are going to dip your toes into the paid links pool and wish to test the waters, know full well what you're getting yourself into--be aware of the risks involved, have a strategy in place (e.g., make sure you have a high amount of naturally acquired links mixed in with a small amount of paid links, and naturally build your links vs. dramatically increasing them over a short period of time), and make sure you have your repair kit and tube on hand in case you do get nailed (remove the links, file a Reconsideration Request, grovel like you've never groveled before).

There you go--a weak analogy that compares getting a flat tire to getting busted for having paid links pointing to your site. I told you I could do it. Now all I need to do is learn more about this crazy contraption called a bicycle. In the meantime, I hope you learned something from my racing woes--if not, then at least I did. I'm already planning on doing another sprint triathlon (I'm dubbing it my "redemption race"), and I'll certainly be more prepared for it. I hope that you're prepared for the risks involved with paid links--if not, then maybe you need to attend a maintenance clinic, too. :)

About rebecca —
Rebecca Kelley is the content marketing manager for Intego, a Mac software company. She also guest-blogs/freelances at various places and runs a couple hobby blogs for shits and giggles.

and another endorsement for armadillos from me. Three punctures due to roofing nails left on the canal towpath in as many days turned me on to them, the next day a nail actually stuck into a tyre but didn't go through to the tube.

Ah, Sean, when I travel to races I always pack my espresso machine, so as to not have to forego the luxury of which you speak.

Also, since you'd be daft not to eat a genuine breakfast before a long course (half-iron or longer) triathlon, and you'd be daft to eat that meal less than 3 hours before the start, and long course races normally start at 7... Maybe triathlon's not the sport for you!

and yes, you (Rebecca) are an athelete if you are attempting a triathelon... albeit not a professional one.. (unless you've won money)..

But i really liked your article... it's kinda like saying "i kinda know how to disarm a bomb" because you got lucky once.... and thinking you can disarm any bomb, mercury switch, IR, pressure plate, etc..

but all you read is "links, SEO is all about links"

hint.. it's not.. a PR 0 page can rank #1 out of 238,000,000 pages with NO links!!

(yes, i know the root URL IS (was) a factor...)

The problem is.. someone somewhere reads about links.. calls our office and wants to know if we can get them X # of PR4 links.. they tell me our competitor can, "EVERYONE they have talked to in Dallas will do linking...."

i tell them we only do what is in the Google guidelines and paid links are not.

P.S. In season, I have my triathletes practice tire changing once a week. It's not that hard to whittle it down to 2 minutes, wheel off through wheel on. Pros go sub 90 seconds...

P.P.S. I once raced a triathlon in Lake Placid, NY (not Ironman) when the water temperature was 48F (failing to cancel the swim violated USA Triathlon's rules; don't ask) and I never remotely warmed up during the bike and run. Flatted twice. I carry two tubes, so no worries; but my fingers could barely work, so those two changes cost me 1/2 hour. I came in third-from-last, managing to beat a 72 year old guy and a guy with one leg.

Rebecca - great post and metaphor. However, your post assumes that a paid link is a paid link - and there is nothing else to be considered. I'd hate for someone who is just learning the ropes about SEO to think that anytime you are engaging in paying for a link (albeit directly or indirectly), that you are destined for a flat tire. There are a myriad of different factors that go into the sustainability of a paid link - from relevance to quality - however what is most often overlooked is the stage at which your website is. For example, if 5% of your backlinks are paid - you have a problem – as your authority is being manufactured (never buy links as way to drive authority).

But if you are an established brand/website, competing against lots of highly optimized content sites (cnet, wikipedia, etc), and a slew of “underwear marketers” (lead gen, aggregators, affiliates, MFA sites, etc) – then you may be at a big disadvantage based on natural linking patterns. It is very common for your site to have a great deal of domain authority (lots of links to the homepage) but very little link focus for your internal pages; and in this scenario, there is nothing wrong with paying for a few links from relevant sites to help drive some structure to your internal pages – it’s almost like changing a title tag. This is actually a good thing for the Internet as an environment and many of the best brands in the world employ these kinds of strategies.

I would love for SEOMOZ to address these kinds of considerations when making broad statements about paid linking tactics. You guys are the best.

I agree with you, Seth. I mentioned that I'm not opposed to paid links, but I don't think you should rely solely on paid links in order to succeed. You're right when you say that a lot of niches need to purchase some links here and there in order to get a leg up on the competition. As I said, it's great to mix in some paid links with your larger amount of naturally built links--the best tactic for staying under the radar. Just don't overdepend on them--they're not an end solution, but rather a complement to your overall strategy.

"...and in this scenario, there is nothing wrong with paying for a few links from relevant sites to help drive some structure to your internal page"

"paying for a few links" is against the search engine guidelines, so that the behavior is risky is at least one thing wrong with the tactic. And large brands with years of offline brand-building efforts who are looking to create long-term sustainable growth online (rather than just a quick rankings hit that could just as quickly dive based on high risk activities) may be the least willing to engage in such tactics.

Vanessa – you bring up a good point, and one we think deserves a larger conversation. To us, the question shouldn’t be about do I use a paid link or a ‘link building service or consultant’ (who, btw, often charges much, much more making that a REALLY EXPENSIVE ‘paid link’). We believe that the question should be about whether or not the tactic, be it links or on-page SEO, is in the best interests of the searcher – or if it is being used to game the engines.

We attended (and happened to sponsor the food and drinks for) the last NY SEMPO meetup. During one session, there was in an house ‘expert‘ detailing his SEO best practices. His two examples?

1) 1)To get a client affiliate site for ranked for ‘elective cosmetic surgery’ ahead of the industry physician site that was currently number one, and

2) 2)Another lead-gen site to rank for ‘free credit report’ ahead of the government, the three majors credit agencies, and the actual site where you can get your free credit report.

These kind customers wouldn’t last a tenth of a second for our internal quality guidelines and process, and here we were, in the midst of 130 of NY’s best SEO minds and thought leaders, and no one said a word! He then moved on to discussing the viability of spamming various social sites, and which ones were cracking down on SEO Spammers - the ironic part was - this guy said paid links were a risky strategy and he did not use them - but there he is pushing lead gen sites ahead of the American Sociery of Plastic Surgeons.

Search Spammers (we call them the ‘underwear marketers' of affiliates and aggregators) gave paid links a bad name – but there certainly are legitimate uses for legitimate marketers. We have seen marketers with millions of links directed at their home page but they’re still failing to rank for their fundamental business terms – not because of bad SEO, but because their ‘natural’ linking strategy has failed them – and their specific category pages fail to get the links that their home pages do. This is especially the case for the big brick and mortar stores & large enterprise companies that have a very diverse set of products and categories, and find it difficult to ‘focus’ anything. Their paid link ratio is 1 to 1,000,000 – they’re not ‘gaming’ anything - just trying to drive some structure to their site.

My mini-diatribe (apologies for the length) isn’t aimed at you, Vanessa – I think you are amazing and wish there were more people who followed your thought leadership.

It’s the goal, and the user experience that should matter – we think that’s a topic that has not been discussed for far too long. I am passionate about search quality and anti-spam efforts as much as anyone, and believe SEO can make play a major role in making Search and the Internet a better place.

There may be legitimate uses, but in the end, it doesn't matter if Google specifically calls them out as being against guidelines. Since Google is actively looking to discount the links, then at best, companies are wasting their investment (and they'll have no way of knowing that their investment was wasted, as Google doesn't flag discounted links in any way). So looking at opportunity cost alone, it's seems smarter to spend limited resources on things that you know will provide ROI long term, vs. things that could stop providing value at any moment.

We're certainly not recommending that - anyone - purchase links in lieu doing other forms of SEO. Paid linking should be a tactic only imparted after you've achieved a critical mass of natural links, built a well SEO structured site and architecure, and only need a few links to drive focus & structure to your deep pages that have difficulty being linked to naturally.

But as I stated before - they can be appropriate and often are needed by the worlds best brands. As far as opportunity costs - they should always be a 'last mile' activity, and like all search expenditures including SEO, should be monitored for ongoing ROI. Some things we do are provide clients with trend and stewardship reports - complete with control group rankings so you can isolate your other SEO efforts - this way marketers can track and understand continued value over time.

2) compressed air refils - only good for a few punctures but instant inflating power! (that could so easily be a viagra link...) You'll see a lot of pro racers use them as theyre much faster!

3) armidillos can work - as can slime (gel stuff you can put into any innertube) however kevlar and gel all add weight to your tyres, mine are fat boys (2.2 inch slicks for street riding) with kevlar lining, and are bomb proof.

Havent really anything to add to the paid link debate as i'm distracted by bikes!

Excellent analogy this was truly a greatly written article. I liked this article a lot because it contained a lot of useful information while adding a sense of humor to a topic that is kind of bland. This site has one of the most interesting blogs I read and I look forward to reading more of your work.

Thank you for reminding me that I have a lot more to learn so that I don't get any flat tires. I am all excited about some internationalization ideas but if I do them wrong from lack of knowledge and experience I could very well end up with a flat tyre.

Good luck on the triathlon. I am never planning on doing one as I am scared of open water swimming - so instead I row. We have our 1st race June 15th. Hopefully all will go well or else I could end up swimming instead.

As an avid cyclist, sorry I missed it earlier. (Guess I was caught up in SMX stuff.)

High five to Rebecca her tenacity and anology! Odd, but this is the best post I've read in almost a year.

SEO is like training for a race. It takes time, time on the bike, in the water, on your feet. There is no substitute for "legs" or "lungs." Natural links are the mitochondria developed from long-slow distance (LSD) miles.

Vanessa's comment about large brand companies not taking the risk is like a Pro athlete taking EPO or blood transfusions. The Tour de France and cycling's reputation is suffering as a result. Sponsors are pulling out. Paid links & SEO -> industry suffers.

PPC - like big shots of caffeine but again not a substitute for training.

Underwear Marketing? IMPORTANT NOTE: You do NOT wear anything under lycra bikeshorts!

Great article Rebecca, and best of luck with your next "Flat Free" event.

Although it's a shame Google completely flattens people tyres instead of just letting some air back out of them. In recent weeks i've seen pretty conclusive evidence in a few seperate cases Google has not only flattened the tyres, but dismantled the whole bike when these paid links were compiled by a competitor who wanted them out of the game using a script.

I'm helping a family business at the moment for free because it's financially devestated them so badly. The biggest hurdle is trying to contact a "real" person at these viagra/tramadol spam locations to get the links removed. I really wish Google would reconsider this policy, the whole thing just doesn't sit well with me.

This was a fantastic post Rebecca. I'm sad I didn't get to see it until after the conference because i was wondering there for a while if I was the last SEO that didn't like paid links. Three cheers to you and it was great getting to meet you. Can't believe you did that the weekend before the conference. Nice job!

Excellent anology... well written... Good luck at the triathlon. I have agreed with your philosophy even before Google punished bought links so no money spent on links here.

Commenting insightful opinions any more to this blog post would be pumping up air into Google Spam team's tires (yes, I am cheesy enough to steal your analogy). All, I wonder is when will BOTW and Yahoo directory eat the dust like JoeAnt did?

Bleugh, I did a 50k 'cycle Sydney' a few years back on my dual suspension downhill with 3" knobby tyres... Never again!

I have never considered buying paid links, though, to be fair, I am always skeptical of anything that offers *anything* for a small fee. I am sitting on page 1 of google for most searches and have a page rank of 4 which I am trying to increase. I kinda see the idea of paid links as cheating.